Balancing Act

I would like to start this post off with some of the most basic advice you may have ever received. You probably first heard it from your parents. In my case, I first heard it from my super rad Granny. Well, really it’s two pieces of advice that I prefer to combine into one golden nugget. The first is to take what people say with a grain of salt. The second is don’t listen to mean/stupid people. In summation, ignore the haters.

When you’re young, these actions can be as simple as choosing to discount the harsh words of the school bully or to tune out the annoying know-it-all kid in class. As an adult, this advice becomes more challenging to follow. The situations evolve from ignoring the rude kid in class, with minimal consequences, to receiving an unjust verbal whooping from your boss, which carries a slew of potential real life consequences.

So how do you walk the adult world tightrope?

When it comes to your responses/reactions to situations in your life, there are two ways to fall off this tightrope. On one side, let’s say the left, a fall results in passiveness or getting walked on, while the right results in insubordination or aggression. Whether it is with friends, their children, your parents, a colleague, a boss, the plumber, or your bitchy soon to be sister-in-law, when it comes to a response, a misstep can lead to a fall.

Whatever you do though, don’t piss off your plumber, especially in New Orleans. Do whatever he asks, or else you will be shitting in your backyard until he decides to forgive you.

Being an adult, in my mind, is being able to delicately balance on this tightrope.

My mother (may she be hailed and praised forever) has always preached that life is about balance. Too much of any one thing and you’ve tipped the scales. At some point things will have to realign to neutral. Having a response that teeters too far to one side of the scale will not help anyone and most often makes the situation worse. This is not to say that you should remain a neutral peon or be a sheep.

Kudos if you caught my second reference to people being sheep. Bahhhh.

In the world we live in, balance is essential. With the presence of social media, a 24-hour work cycle and America’s obsession with having it all, balance and prioritization is key. Right about now, this is where some of my readers who know me all too well are thinking, “…the irony that Elise is writing about balance.”

That’s not the point. I know I’m not the best at the balancing act, but the goal is to try.

If everyone were the best at enacting the advice they doled out, the Internet would be a much less interesting place.

So remember that it’s not the exactness of the response that matters most, it’s the effort to create a response that leads to the most balanced end result. All we can do in life is try our best.

Life is a balancing act, but don’t forget to look up and enjoy the view.